It was her passion for female empowerment, entrepreneurship, and education that led educator and transformational leader Jannel Alexander-Reid to establish the Institute of JAR some five years ago to pour into the lives of women locally.

The skills training and entrepreneurship school, registered with the Ministry of Education, offers a list of short courses and workshops to women across a number of vocational areas, spanning events planning and décor, make-up artistry, cake baking and decorating, floral arrangement, nail technology, braiding, entrepreneurship, and housekeeping.

“We are dedicated to empowering women to become financially and socially independent. To accomplish this we ensure that entrepreneurship training is incorporated in all the courses that we offer. The institution offers short courses with average durations of 6-8 weeks as well as a number of one- to three-day workshops.

“The institution was birthed to give women who weren’t able to attend university and wanted to pursue an opportunity to become employed as well as to start their own businesses. The passion is not quenched and I continue to be encouraged by the number of graduates that have started their own businesses after engaging studies at the Institute of JAR,” Alexander-Reid told the Jamaica Observer.

The institute, which offers trainings virtually and physically, currently operates from three bases — Kingston, Montego Bay in St James, and May Pen in Clarendon.

The training entity, now working overtime to also become a global brand, through some current plans, has been busy working to develop strategic partnerships with key players of industry in the Caribbean and wider world.

“We seek to partner with other international agencies, to impact the lives of more women locally and globally. Our target audience are women who are seeking to level up in life whether by learning a new skill or starting a business, but we also do corporate and group trainings for clients across churches, communities, schools, and other non-profit organisations. These training sessions are, however, not limited to women,” she noted.

Describing her business as more than just a school, Alexander-Reid referred to it as an “empowerment hub”, which, through well-curated lessons, top-notch trainers, and some of the most sought-after courses, ranks among the best in class and top of the industry.

“We currently have a staff complement of 14, with plans to increase count leading up to the September quarter. Our competitive advantage is the quality of our course delivery. All facilitators are experts in their fields, possessing a combined experience of over 50 years in training. This, coupled with the level of attention given to students, has also resulted in an uptick in repeat enrolments, as in many instances we have seen where students return to us for additional courses, sometimes up to thrice. As a result of the many success stories we have delivered through the institute, we have found that year on year more persons have also started to engage us for enrolment in our courses,” Alexander-Reid further said to Sunday Finance.

“Our facilitators literally perfect the art of hand-holding, offering students lifelong mentorship and support, which is another of the things they appreciate a lot,” she also said, noting that current partnerships with agencies such as the HEART/NSTA Trust and a number of public and private sector companies have been helping students of the institute to matriculate more easily into the job market.

Having now trained close to 2,000 students since inception, some 400 annually, the institute’s founder and director wants to, during the short to medium term, expand the school’s teaching curriculum while tightening partnerships with vocational entities such as the HEART/NSTA Trust. Similarly, moves to expand the business to other parts of the Caribbean, in countries such as Grenada, Trinidad, and St Lucia, she said are now in advanced stages, with hopes to land the requisite approvals by year end.

“In the next three years the institute will introduce self-paced online courses to the market. Our long-term goal, however, is to become a global brand for vocational, life, soft skills, and entrepreneurship as we strive to empower women globally. Our goal as an institution is to reach much more women and to provide them with opportunities to empower themselves and to change their lives through the programmes offered,” Alexander-Reid said in closing.